Eduardo y Ravena
by Jeune Ecrivain
Summary: Just when Eddie is realizing new feelings for Raven, she gets another psychic cold.
1. Capitulo Uno

Disclaimer: This work of fiction is based on characters and situations owned by the Walt Disney Company. No copyright infringement is intended, and no profit is being made from this. The followingis purely for entertainment.

**Eduardo y Ravena**

**By Jeune Ecrivain**

**Summary: Just when Eddie is realizing new feelings for Raven, she gets another psychic cold. **

**Rating: PG**

"Eddie, concentrate."

Eddie Thomas snapped out of his reverie and looked at the half-irritated, half-amused expression on his best friend's face. Raven Baxter sighed. "If you're going to get this, you have to pay attention."

"Sorry, Rae," said Eddie, his thoughts for the moment returned to the subject matter before him. "I'm paying attention now." _To her, or to Spanish?_ he thought to himself with an inner roll of his eyes.

The two teens were now high school juniors, and in an ironically repetitive turn of events, Raven was once again attempting to get Eddie's Spanish up to par. The challenge was, in a way, even greater now. Last year, the only Spanish class either one had taken was an introductory course, which was little more than basic vocabulary. This year, their Spanish class was much more focused on grammar, which was naturally a little more complicated than simply remembering, for example, that "shoe" equals _zapato_.

"Do the verb _ser_," she told him, her eyes immediately glaring at him with a mix of hope and expectance.

Eddie paused for a moment before saying slowly. "_Soy,…eres,…es,…somos,…sois,…son_," he recited.

A warm smile spread across Raven's face. "That's right!" she almost squealed.

Eddie grinned, and as Raven returned to the textbook for a moment, his grin shrunk only partially to a half-smile. He had definitely needed help with his Spanish, and he knew Raven was pretty good at it. But perhaps asking for her help wasn't the best idea, since she was becoming something of a distraction. Maybe it was a last ditch effort to prove to himself that Raven hadn't unexpectedly acquired a somewhat new and dare he say romantic appeal in his eyes. If that was the case, than he wasn't proving anything. If anything, he was making it more and more obvious to himself that, like it or not, Raven had become as much of a romantic interest as she was a friend.

He had caught himself countless times over the past month or two, paying unusual attention to how her caring and vivacious personality made his day more interesting than it otherwise would be and how her bright and expressive brown eyes reflected her emotions in a way that was never unpleasant to behold even if the mood being reflected wasn't a good one. She had long, flowing hair whose color made her name seem all the more appropriate. She did something new with it almost every day, but Eddie was certain it would probably look best if it was let to naturally frame her pretty face and cascade down her shoulders and back.

"Eddie, don't space out on me again," Raven rolled her eyes.

Eddie blinked. "Oh, sorry, Rae," he said.

"Can you do _hacer_?" she asked in a business-like tone that somehow managed to sound cute at the same time.

_Cute? Did I just use the word 'cute'?_ Eddie marveled inwardly. _Get a grip, Thomas!_ "Uh,…" he fumbled slightly. "Yeah."

Raven nodded and gave him that expectant look again.

"_Hago,…haces,…hace,…hacemos,…hacéis,…hacen_," he recited.

Her lips once again formed that warm smile, and Eddie wondered briefly what it would be like to kiss her. _Man, I got it bad…and for Raven, of all people!_ he thought to himself. _I'm not s'posed to feel like this about HER! How did this happen?_

His thoughts were interrupted by a sneeze from Raven. She sniffled. "I've been a little stuffed up today," she said. Indeed, she did sound slightly congested.

"You think you're comin' down with something?"

"I don't know," said Raven. "I hope not. I have a big algebra test tomorrow, and I wanna be in good health for it."

"I'm sure it'll be fine, Rae," Eddie said with a crooked grin.

Raven smiled back at him. "Thanks."


	2. Capitulo Dos

**Eduardo y Ravena**

**By Jeune Ecrivain**

**Summary: Just when Eddie is realizing new feelings for Raven, she gets another psychic cold. **

**Rating: PG**

**Part 2**

"AH-CHOO!" Raven clutched a tissue to her nose, wriggled it almost like a small rabbit, and then sniffled.

"You know, Rae, maybe you should've stayed home today," suggested her friend Chelsea Daniels.

Raven blew her nose. "Yeah, Cheals, but I have that algebra test today, and the teacher said no make-ups!"

Chelsea looked at her with a look of concern on her face. "Oh, c'mon, Rae. Teachers who say that are just trying to keep the people who aren't really sick from skipping. Besides, you'll probably end up getting a bad grade just because you weren't completely awake."

"I'm awake."

"Rae, I caught you about an hour ago leaning on your locker catching some much-needed z's."

"And now I have those z's, so I'm fine," Raven quipped.

Raven blew her nose again, and as she did so, she heard a female voice say _Man, Baxter looks even worse than usual today_. Raven turned to find Alana walking past her. "Oh, way to kick a girl when she's down, Alana!" she shouted back.

Alana looked back at her not with the expected look of spite but with a surprised and confused expression. She then walked off, her posse following loyally behind her.

Raven looked at Chelsea and noticed that her face was mirroring Alana's. "Rae," began Chelsea. "Is that cold making you grumpy? 'Cause Alana didn't say a word to you."

"She did too, the nasty!" Raven said darkly. "She said I looked even worse than usual!"

Now Chelsea was really perplexed. "Okay, either I'm going deaf or you're hearing things, 'cause from where I'm standing, Alana didn't even open her mouth."

"Chelsea, what are you…" Raven stopped in mid sentence, her mental gears turning. "Oh, snap!"

"What?" asked Chelsea.

"I don't think this is just another cold!"

"Oh!" realized Chelsea. "You mean, it's another one of those…" She snapped her fingers, the word eluding her.

"Psychic colds, Chels?" Raven suggested knowingly.

"Yeah. That's it. You have a psychic cold," Chelsea diagnosed.

Raven shook her head in defeated annoyance. "Oh, snap. I might as well go home. I can't take a test with people's thoughts comin' at me from all over the place."

"Finally, you get some sense into that congested head of yours!" remarked Chelsea.

Raven turned resignedly towards the clinic to call her mother, but a vision stopped her in mid-step. In her inner psychic eye, she saw Tonya grinning triumphantly at Victor, who sighed, pulled out his wallet, and handed his wife some cash with a roll of his eyes.

Raven shook it off, caught a tissue just in time as her nose pulled a Vesuvius, and muttered to herself as she wiped her nose and continued on her way, "That's about the most useless vision I've ever had."


	3. Capitulo Tres

**Eduardo y Ravena**

**By Jeune Ecrivain**

**Summary: Just when Eddie is realizing new feelings for Raven, she gets another psychic cold. **

**Rating: PG**

**Part 3**

Eddie Thomas strutted triumphantly out of his Spanish class, apparently quite pleased with himself. He victory-danced his way to his locker, where Chelsea eyed him in puzzlement. "Uh,…Eddie," she said. "What's got you all dancy?"

Eddie chuckled. "You mean why am I _bailando en la escuela_!" he declared, holding up the test he had just gotten back from Señorita Rodríguez. "B-plus, _mi amiga_!"

Chelsea smiled brightly and grabbed the paper. "What? Eddie, that's great! _Felicitaciones_!"

"_Muchas gracias_," replied Eddie proudly, taking back the paper and beaming at it like a little boy. His smile then turned from proud to warm. "And I owe it all to Raven."

"Well, hey, I helped," Chelsea protested.

"Oh, right. Thanks, Cheals," Eddie responded.

"_De nada_," said Chelsea, giving him a satisfied smile as she turned back to her locker.

"Speaking of Rae, where is she?" asked Eddie, looking around the halls.

"Oh, that's right. She probably didn't get a chance to tell you," observed Chelsea.

"Tell me what?"  
"Raven has a really bad cold and she went home about an hour ago."

"Oh, man!" exclaimed Eddie. "I was really looking forward to showing her my B-plus."

"Well, duh, Eddie. I'm pretty sure she's still conscious," quipped Chelsea. "I'm sure it would lift her spirits if you stopped by after school and showed her. She's probably still stewing about that algebra test she's going to miss."

"Right. She was talking about that earlier when she was helping me get ready for this test."

"I think it'll be okay, though. Mr. Fredders isn't as much of a stickler as he'd like us to think he is."

"Ain't that the truth," Eddie remarked with a role of his eyes.

Chelsea laughed, then her eyes lit up as a tall, handsome boy with beach-blond hair approached her. "Hey, Ben!" she said, a trace of flirtation in her voice.

"Hi, Chelsea," Ben replied. "I've…uh…been wondering…Would you go to the Valentine's Day dance with me?"

Chelsea smiled warmly. "Sure! I'm surprised you even had to ask. We pretty much figured out how we felt about each other with that whole Rayne Bow concert fiasco."

Ben opened his mouth to respond, but a vision stopped him. He turned to face Eddie. "You don't…have any feelings for Chelsea, do you?" he asked somewhat awkwardly, hoping that he had somehow misunderstood the vision he had just had so that he wouldn't have some hefty interpersonal drama to deal with.

"What!" Eddie replied, surprised and taken aback at the idea. "No! Of course not! What gave you an idea like that?"

"I just had a vision of you saying to someone 'Look, we've been friends for a long time, and I don't want to ruin that. But I can't help that I feel something more for you.'"

Eddie let out a nervous chuckle. "Well,…uh…it wasn't Chelsea, if that's what you're thinking." He avoided eye contact with both Ben and Chelsea, unsure of whether or not he wanted either to be aware of his feelings for Raven but knowing he had to reassure Ben that he wasn't looking to enter into competition for Chelsea's affections.

"But it was someone you've obviously known for quite a while," Ben observed.

"Is it…Loca?" Chelsea guessed.

"No!" Eddie said automatically, grabbing his arm protectively at the mere thought of the tallest member of Alana's posse. He instantly regretted his response, because he had inadvertently narrowed the possibilities to virtually one person He sighed, realizing it was no use now. "It's Raven," he admitted reluctantly.

Chelsea arched her eyebrows. "Raven? You have feelings for Raven? Our psychic Raven Baxter?"

"Yeah. Is that so hard to believe?" replied Eddie, his tone sounding somewhat defensive of Raven's romantic appeal. "I mean, I didn't expect to feel this way about her either, but now that I do, I'm starting to wonder what took me so long."

"Oh, sounds like you're in love!" Chelsea teased.

"Yeah, man. Good luck with that. I know the whole friends-to-lovers thing can be tricky," said Ben.

"You don't know the half of it. I'm going to try to ask her to the dance, but I'm still not if I want to take the chance. Our friendship means a lot to me."

"Aww!" cooed Chelsea. "That's really sweet!"

Just then, the bell rang for the last class of the day. "I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow," said Eddie. "I'm going to stop by at Raven's and show her my test. Hopefully it'll make her feel better."

"Alright," responded Chelsea. "Bye, Eddie."

Eddie walked away, books under his arm.

"So, Chels," said Ben. "Is Raven sick or something?"

"Yeah," Chelsea confirmed as she started towards class. "She has a bad cold." No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she stopped dead in her tracks and her eyes grew wide.

Ben approached her. "What's wrong, Chelsea!"

"I forgot to tell Eddie Raven has a psychic cold!"

"The kind that makes you telepathic?" asked Ben.

"Uh-huh," Chelsea answered, an expression on her face that could best be translated as "What have I done!"

"Well, we gotta get to class," Ben observed reluctantly. "Maybe you can catch him before he goes over to her house."

"I hope so," Chelsea replied.


	4. Capitulo Cuatro

**Eduardo y Ravena**

**By Jeune Ecrivain**

**Summary: Just when Eddie is realizing new feelings for Raven, she gets another psychic cold. **

**Rating: PG**

**Part 4**

Raven blew her nose loudly for the umpteenth time as she half-sat, half-laid on her bed. She then looked up to find her brother Cory standing at the entrance to her bedroom with a bowl of soup in his hands and a disgusted look on his face. "Geez, it's a good thing you came home," he said, "'cause there ain't nobody that wants to see that."

"I know, I know," Raven said resignedly. "I don't look my best, but you don't have to rub it in."

"I could be polite and lie to you, but you'd just hear the truth in my head anyway," Cory observed with a shrug as he approached his sister. "Anyway, here's that chicken soup Mom made."

"I thought chicken soup was for the flu."

"Oh, it is," Cory replied. "But Mom and her whole side of the family insist that chicken soup cures virtually anything."

"Oh, well, I guess it can't hurt," said Raven, spooning the soup idly. "Thanks for bringing it up."

"Yeah, sure," responded Cory casually before turning to leave.

Raven took a bite of her soup, but before she could swallow it, she started to cough in surprise and repulsion. "Cory," she said harshly.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"First of all, Chelsea has a boyfriend, so get this through your head: it ain't gonna happen. Second of all, the next time you decide to have fantasies about my best friend and I have a psychic cold, could you please not do it within mind-shot of me, 'cause I do not need the mental images!"

"Fine," Cory conceded with a role of his eyes. With that, he was gone.

Raven idly munched on her soup for a few moments, her thoughts returning occasionally to the algebra test she was missing. This was where her mind was when she heard a knock on her door. "Who is it?" she called.

"It's Eddie," answered a familiar voice.

"C'mon in," Raven called, inwardly grateful Eddie had come. He always brightened her mood, and that's exactly what she needed then.

Eddie entered her room and caught sight of her. "Hey," he greeted.

"Hey," she returned. "You do realize that, besides being a total mess, I'm also contagious, right?"

_For you, I'll take my chances_, she heard him think, at which she couldn't help but smile. "Ah, we're friends. Friends don't let friends be sick alone," Eddie spoke aloud. "I just had to show you this," he added, handing her his Spanish test. _I can't wait for her to see this!_

Raven took it and glanced down at it. Her face lit up. "Yay! A B-plus! Way to go!"

"Thank you," replied Eddie, taking a theatrical bow.

She beamed at him proudly as she handed the paper back

_Man, there's that smile again! _thought Eddie. _That face is a sight for sore eyes any day!_

Raven's smile faded slightly from surprise at Eddie's thoughts, and she could sense herself blushing.

_It's not just her face, either_, Eddie added inwardly, giving her a smile that bore a trace of nervousness. _Get a grip, man!_ he scolded himself.

Raven averted her eyes for a moment, trying to make sense of Eddie's thoughts. They were flattering, to be sure, but boys usually don't talk like that about their friends. She shook it off for the moment. "I'm happy for you Eddie," she said.

Eddie chuckled confidently. "It just goes to show that with a little help from his friends, E.T. can do anything!" _Except tell the best friend he's known all his life how he really feels about her_, added his internal mental self wryly.

Raven's jaw dropped slightly. Was Eddie feeling what she thought he was feeling? "Eddie…" she began after slurping another spoonful of soup. However, a familiar nasal sensation interrupted her, and she let out a rather loud sneeze!

"That bug's really got you, huh?" Eddie observed, chuckling warmly at her and plucking a tissue from the box on her desk to hand to her.

Raven accepted the tissue and blew her nose again. "I probably look like heck," she said with a sniffle.

"Nah," Eddie reassured her. "You look fine." _It'll take a lot more than a cold to make you unattractive_.

Raven blushed again, and she suddenly felt a little self-conscious.

"Are you alright?" Eddie asked, obviously noticing this. "Still stewing about that Algebra test?"

"Ye-Yeah," Raven said, reasserting herself as she swung her legs off the bed and stood up. "I'm fine. Mom said if Mr. Fedders doesn't let me make it up, she'll sue," she said with a laugh.

_Nice figure, Rae_, Eddie remarked voicelessly. _How'd I get so lucky that the girl I care about deeply also happens to be so sexy?_

Raven was so taken aback she nearly stumbled. _Did he just call me sexy?_

"You okay?" Eddie repeated, her nervousness obviously beginning to show.

"Uh,…yeah," Raven stammered. But in her head, her thoughts were racing. _Edward Thomas, my best friend since kindergarten, just thought of me in a completely non-platonic way!_ She didn't know what to do. She couldn't let Eddie know she was reading his mind, but she needed some way to escape from his presence so that she could digest what she had learned.

As if on cue, Chelsea burst into her room, followed by Ben. She stopped abruptly when she found her two friends, and ran her hands through her hair nervously. "Huh…hi, Raven and Eddie," she said awkwardly. "Rae, how are you coming with that nasty psychic cold?" she asked pointedly, eying Eddie and not doing a good job of hiding her emphasis on the word 'psychic.'

"Yeah," Ben piped in. "I remember my worst psychic cold. I could read minds for a week," he stated, throwing hinting glances at Eddie.

Eddie and Raven looked confused for a moment. Then, Raven heard some of Chelsea's thought and all confusion left her. Eddie's mental gears weren't turning for long before he too figured it out. "Wait a minute?" he asked, an infant panic sounding in his voice. "Are you trying to tell me that Raven has one of those colds where she can read our minds?"  
Chelsea nodded eagerly.

Eddie turned to Raven for confirmation, and she too nodded.

"So, that means…" Eddie trailed off, and he once again looked at Raven, who delayed eye contact for as long as she could before she allowed her gaze to meet his. Eddie was spared the task of asking the question that was on the tip of his tongue. He could see the answer in her eyes just as clearly as if he himself were telepathic. Her apologetic expression said it all.

"I gotta go," he said quickly before he fled from the awkwardness that filled the room, not knowing what else to do.


End file.
